State of the Parish 2022
‘Go and do likewise’.
It’s tempting to read the Good Samaritan just as an ethical imperative.
Find the struggling people and give them a hand!
The question Jesus answers is not, though, how to be good –
But who is my neighbour?
The Good Samaritan is a story of an encounter between two strangers.
And the result is communion.
The result, on the road between Jericho and Jerusalem, is the church.
Today it’s our opportunity to reflect back on 2021.
Hopefully, you’ve already seen a copy of the Annual Report, which sets out the story.
I find it hard to have a clear sense of time at the moment.
The pandemic has had the effect of concertina-ing time – our experience of time drags through lockdowns but looking back seems short – as often little happened to remember!
2021 began very slowly in one of the longest periods of lockdown.
Most churches in the diocese shut their doors again.
We remained open and I know that for some who came that was very important;
And there is something about maintaining the worship of a space given to prayer – something our Archbishops neglected in 2020.
The community still gathered online in large numbers each Sunday, and also at our every day services, but the good weather and spirit that had held the nation together through 2020 was at low ebb in early 2021.
Financially, the pandemic has been disastrous for churches.
There is a movement at hand to close churches as the Church of England finds itself spread too thin, which the pandemic has accelerated.
Our generosity and resourcefulness got us through 2020, but we can perhaps be even more proud of 2021 finishing in the black.
With no collections and restricted hall rental in the first term, it was the congregation’s generosity that rebalanced our finances through our Lent appeal and relieved the pressure on our return to a new normality after Easter.
Easter was eventful.
Rhiannon likes to create little challenges at Easter, traditionally a busy time for vicars.
On Holy Saturday 2020 6 tonnes of top soil arrived on the road in front of the vicarage to create raised beds behind the house.
The morning and afternoon before the Easter Vigil were spent between a spade and a wheelbarrow.
As the Benedictines like to say ‘laborare est orare’
To work is to pray.
In 2021 the work was mostly done by her, but it does make it harder to plan Easter services when it’s also the due date for your baby.
Like Christ rising from the tomb, Apollo appeared very early in the morning on Easter Sunday, and it was our turn to watch the Easter service online, taken by Jono from St Mary’s in the garden.
But the 2021 Holy Week services were the best attended in the last ten years
(even without counting those streaming, which for the Easter 10am was over 100 devices).
– perhaps the Easter story and the message of hope particularly appealed to a people beleaguered by lockdowns.
The resonance seems to have stuck as our Easter service this year was again the best attended in my records;
and the first time since the pandemic it’s really felt to me like we’ve had a full church.
General attendance in church is higher than 2017 and 18, but has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels.
Many people have left Putney in the last couple of years, and a number of friends have died.
The pandemic has lasted so long it’s not a matter of bouncing back but of starting again, especially in building connections with local young families.
Pastorally, things have moved back towards something like normal.
2021 saw the return of regular baptisms, which continues.
We also had an unusual number of weddings, including some at the heart of our community.
And funerals while still double pre-pandemic levels, were half the number of 2020.
It does, however, seem that Putney is a terribly healthy place to live.
Five of our congregation reached 90 in 2021, and have recently been celebrating 91.
Sadly Roger Power died early this year, shortly after his wife’s memorial service.
We will remember his life with his whole family returning in July.
In another area, 2021 continued to harm the arts.
We continued to support musicians through our recital series raising over £200 each week, while also putting on a free concert for our community.
Very much a win/win situation!
In an effort to rejuvenate and bolster our choir we also took on three choral scholars –
Not only do they provide a strong foundation for the choir, and solo voices, but they’ve also helped gather the choir with the confidence that there will be enough singers to perform an anthem in the service and that you won’t be singing on your own!
Under Nick’s leadership the choir has achieved a much stronger consistency, performing some challenging works, often supplemented by other musical instruments and with his own fine organ playing.
On Christian education, we were able to hold a preparation for Communion course in the second half of the year, and with the return to normal running, Bryony and Ben have re-established the Sunday School.
Small groups also returned to meeting and quiet days found record attendance.
In Lent and Advent I ran talks on the Gospels of Mark and Luke, which forced me to look at some recent Biblical scholarship and were hopefully helpful to others who attended online or in person.
I also co-ordinated the Lent talks for Churches Together in Putney and Roehampton which were online but some great talks including one from a professor involved in research on the pandemic and another by the poet who went on to win the biggest poetry competition in the UK in 2022.
Since the pandemic began pastoral care has been at the forefront of our operations.
Our Soup and cake run ran for over a year delivering to 80 people each week through the first half of 2021, finishing with a summer party at church.
At the time we wondered how we might retain the wonderful synergy of volunteering, cooking and baking, pastoral need and friendship that our operation had created.
Out of this in 2022 we began ‘lunch in the lane’ a free community lunch open to all.
It was immediately successful with over 40 people each week and a strong base of volunteering and donation.
There is every age group from newborns to 90s, and as someone told me escaping work on their lunchbreak and not a churchgoer – “it’s the highlight of my week”.
The playgroup returned and at times in 2021 was operating several times a week.
When restrictions lifted it reached over 100 people in church and continues to be very popular.
With the recitals, that means we have three distinct community events every week, drawing from our diverse community in our parish.
I wonder when was the last time so many people from our community have regularly passed through and come to our church.
The Mission of St Margaret’s is probably stronger today than it has been in a very long time.
It has, though, been difficult maintaining connections with other institutions.
In 2021 we streamed services with schools and Ashmead care home and have done visits where possible.
Falcon School returned for Christmas, as did the Beehive nursery, but Granard cancelled;
We hosted Paddock school for the first time in a long time this Easter and it’s hoped we will begin to restore all those relationships.
The pandemic has shaken every aspect of church and community life.
But I do think with our connections, our increased sense of responsibility and the capability and enthusiasm we’ve developed in the last years, St Margaret’s has not only weathered this storm but is well placed to do new and more exciting things in this new phase of our life.
2023 marks the centenary of St Margaret’s being a parish and having a vicar.
Since the first and greatest, Percy Wallis, who started here in 1918 and became vicar in 1923, I am now only the 10th, having started in 2018.
That speaks to the fact that this parish is a wonderful place to serve and we are delighted to be here.
In the last years we have been focussed on developing the worship space.
Mark Steward’s platform has enabled us to bring our worship forward creating a more communitarian space.
Jonathan Crane devised a new lighting system to supplement it which has enhanced both worship and performance.
Within the next few months we will be continuing this development by bringing in a custom designed nave altar to better suit this space, and also reordering the church with the replacement of pews for chairs.
This will create the flexibility we need for the different activities going on in church as well as creating more opportunities for how we use our worship space.
In the last few months, however, we have also received a legacy which creates a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make a lasting change to our parish.
Elizabeth Worth, on her death, left us a considerable sum from which we will build a new Worth Parish Centre – connecting the church and halls, refurbishing the facilities, and presenting a new front to our parish buildings.
This will be a major undertaking over the next two years, and kindly Jonathan Crane has agreed to manage it;
but on the centenary of our becoming a parish, this new moment in our community life presents an opportunity to increase our capability for all kinds of events, our financial independence, and our resources as a place of worship at the heart of a lively community.
The Good Samaritan has traditionally been read allegorically.
Jerusalem is the heavenly condition;
Jericho the worldly, sinful condition;
The wounded man is humanity
The Good Samaritan Christ;
The inn – the church
The innkeeper – the Holy Spirit
I think that can be helpful.
What I don’t think is true is the frequently held view that being a Christian is about going out and doing good to people.
Christianity is always about building communion;
Which is about developing connections and community and relationships.
Who is my neighbour – isn’t about who should I be good to? Who should I care for?
It’s who should I be involved with?
Who could I put my life, my salvation, in the hands of?
At St Margaret’s there’s a great deal of service, there’s worship, there’s fellowship.
I want this to be the place between Jericho and Jerusalem.
We might be the Samaritan, we might be in the ditch.
God is among us when we care for and are cared for by one another.
When we come together in Christ.
As we look forward to our centenary as a parish, let’s ask ourselves:
‘where can we find more opportunities to show love for one another?’
Amen.